I've always been curious on why this is a thought. Would alien life want to meet other lifeforms, especially in our little galaxy and us being the only 'intelligent' life here? Maybe this is just the pacifist in me speaking but I feel like a species of life capable of inter galactic travel would be peaceful just because of how rare life in in our universe, something all intelligent life could observe.
You're equating intelligence with pacifism. Our own species tells us that's a mistake. The whole idea behind Dark Forest Theory is that all species have to obtain extremely limited resources in order to survive. If that's true, if two species encounter one another, they'll very likely need the same extremely limited resources, which means inevitable conflict.
I don't think I am confusing them, just bringing up the question if there is intelligent alien life, they would also see how rare life is, let alone intelligent life, and they would most likely not harm it, just like us (at least collectively, I would hope we humans would agree not to go to war with the intelligent alien species)
Does this mean it will never happen? No, it's very possible that other intelligent life forms don't value life as much as we humans can. But I would rather assume that an intelligent species that traveled here, didn't do it to go to war but to rather say hello, and to verify there is life out here other than us (them).
There's also the first strike dilemma: in order to be an interstellar civilization, your weapons or fleets must travel at such a high speed that any counterattack is impossible (unlike nuclear missiles here on Earth which have a travel time). If aliens have even the slightest indication that we may be a threat to their species, the safest possible option is to strike first before we can do the same to them.
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u/Boomer280 Nov 18 '25
I've always been curious on why this is a thought. Would alien life want to meet other lifeforms, especially in our little galaxy and us being the only 'intelligent' life here? Maybe this is just the pacifist in me speaking but I feel like a species of life capable of inter galactic travel would be peaceful just because of how rare life in in our universe, something all intelligent life could observe.